Student-Designed Electromagnetic Harvester Pulls Power From Thin Air

What if recharging the battery in your favorite mobile device was as easy as holding it up to the sky? No solar charger, USB port, or wall outlet required. German design student Dennis Siegel is winning awards with just such a miracle gadget–an electromagnetic harvester that captures and repurposes the electromagnetism that’s all around us.

Lights, power lines, even the gadgets in your pocket: all of these machines emits a very small amount of electromagnetism into the environment. Siegel’s device takes advantage of this...